Global temperatures soared again in November - just as leaders from the world gathered in Paris to begin thrashing out a new agreement to tackle climate change.
Average land and sea-surface temperatures last month were 0.54 degrees above the 1981-2010 norm, Japan Meteorological Agency said on Monday.
At 0.88 degrees above the average for the 20th century, last month was easily the warmest November in records going back to 1891, the agency said.
The preliminary readings are likely to be confirmed by other institutions, such as the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration later this month.
As shown in the following chart, November's temperatures spiked, underscoring the confidence the World Meteorological Organisation last month had in declaring 2015 certain to be the hottest year on record - beating the previous high set only a year earlier.
In terms of previous warm Novembers, last month's 0.54-degree departure from the 1981-2010 average was a breakaway result. The four next biggest deviations from the norm ranged from 0.24 to 0.31 degrees.
The strong El Nino in the Pacific - perhaps the third most intense in the satellite era over the past 40 or so years - is giving an extra temperature spur to the background warming from climate change, climatologists say.
Temperature gains like November's were part of the reason why almost 200 nations agreed in Paris over the past weekend on a global pact to curb emissions after 2020. While the existing pledges - assuming they get implemented will still leave the planet on a warming path of about 2.7 degrees.
The Paris climate deal, though, is hoped to be the first step in a new international effort to limit warming to well below an increase of two degrees on pre-industrial times, with five-yearly reviews of targets for all nations due to start in 2020.